YouTube is testing a new way for users to talk to each other, tweaking product timestamps, expanding AI replies, and continuing its long-standing hobby of deleting sketchy channels and then arguing about it afterward.
It’s a buffet of updates. A strange buffet. With AI at every table.
YouTube is now testing a feature that lets users share videos and chat about them directly inside the app. Yes. Messaging. Inside YouTube. In 2025. Nature is healing.
This is currently being tested in Ireland and Poland, which means if it goes terribly wrong, at least it’s happening far away first.
The process is simple in the most complicated way possible. First, you invite someone to chat. Then they accept. Then you can finally share a video and talk about it. So it’s DMs, but with consent forms.
YouTube says this has been “highly requested,” which usually translates to “someone screamed about it on Reddit for six years.” It also conveniently forgets that YouTube has tried messaging before. Multiple times. Each attempt quietly disappeared like an unpaid intern at launch week.
But sure. This time will definitely be different.
Creators are getting drag-and-drop timestamp controls for clips, meaning you can now slide your markers along the playback bar like a functional human instead of playing microscopic guesswork with timecodes.
This actually matters. It makes tagging moments cleaner, faster, and far less annoying. It helps product mentions line up properly. It helps highlight important parts of your video. It helps you avoid comments that say, “Wrong timestamp lol.”
No notes. This one’s a win.
YouTube is also adjusting how product timestamps appear on mobile. Instead of popping up right on the video like an uninvited guest, they’ll now sit politely in a product shelf below the playback window.
The ad is still there. It’s just crouching now.
YouTube says this may reduce disruption. It will also remain visible until another product marker appears, which means it’s still gently whispering, “You could buy this,” the entire time.
Here’s where the robots really earn their keep.
YouTube is expanding its AI-generated comment reply suggestions. This means when someone comments on your video, YouTube will offer you instant, pre-written responses you can tap and post without thinking at all.
Yes, it’s faster. Yes, it saves time. And yes, every comment section is now one step closer to sounding like a customer service chatbot politely arguing with itself.
You can edit the reply before posting, which is YouTube’s way of saying, “We know this sounds fake. Please fix it if you care.”
These AI replies will be available across mobile and web versions of YouTube Studio, and in over 100 languages. Even your autopilot has options now.
Finally, YouTube continues using automated detection to suspend and remove channels that try to mislead viewers or game the system. This has triggered the traditional flood of videos titled some variation of “YouTube Destroyed My Career.”
YouTube says most of the removals are accurate. Creators say the algorithm is drunk. Both sides will continue shouting into the void.
Nothing new here. Just the internet doing what it does best.
YouTube is trying to be everything at once. A video platform. A messaging app. A shopping experience. A social network. An AI assistant. And somehow, through all of this feature stacking, the site still works most days.
Some of the updates are genuinely helpful. Some feel unnecessary. Some feel like someone at YouTube said, “What if we added AI to this?” and nobody stopped them.
The timestamp upgrades are great. The product shelf is tolerable. The AI replies are inevitable. And the new DMs? We’ll see how long those last before YouTube quietly pretends they never existed.
YouTube keeps adding features like it’s terrified of TikTok, nervous about Meta, and deeply emotionally attached to artificial intelligence.
But hey, at least now you don’t have to type “Thanks!” fifty times a day.
Progress.
